Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-01-27

and thanks to nobody"
This was 4 strange way of talking of
wood carving. Martha wondered and
puzzled while she was taking off bright
haired Gretchen's strong little shoes
and putting her to bed. Well, after
all, it was the just right of workman
to get the value of his work; perhaps
that was what Fritz meant. But Fritz
must be making great deal of money
now. Why, he had gone up to the
castle in the middle of the day to mend
broken part of the Swiss clock case.
When Fritz Hartmann reached the
notary's house he forgot that there was
any such thing as carving in the world,
unless it be carving out a fortune. Yet
there was some carving to be done, and
he might be rich. The old notary and
Hartmann walked in the garden by the
colored spires of hollyhock flowers.
They smoked and talked of the time of
Hartmann father, and how the old
notary knew him well, and how there
had been quarrel.
mo one in the village knows?"
asked the old lawyer keenly.
mo one-I am a good gaoler to keep
secrets fast"
"But it is time" said the notary.
'Your case is safe. The old Baron
was almost dead. I was called in to
| make the will by the man to whom the
property was willed. His defence
would not have leg to stand on
It was a very strange thing that
while those two men were talking by
the hollyhocks, considering the future
lawsuit which was to make Schwartz
berg Castle change owners, at the
castle itself the evil omen came again.
In the old tapestried drawing room
young Schmidt was telling his tale,
leaning over the back of his little
wife's chair, after days shooting. On
the wall opposite to the windows there
was only the softly shaded tapestry;
but at one end of the room
there was the portrait of
Bertha, in white and pearls, as
bride; it had been hung there instead
i of the broken mirror. All at once the
portrait dragged the long nails from
| the wall and fell face downward on the
polished floor. Even Ludwig Schmidt,
man as he was, turned pale and stood
unable to stir in the dead silence after
the crash. Then, seeing his young
wife's head sink forward, he turned to
her in panic. Was she already dead!
passed off and the servants We're gath
cred round her where she lay in the
cool air on the terrace. Her eyes
sought her husband S face, and the only
words she spoke We're: II am to die!''
Now, to a dead certainty-and a very
dead certainty indeed-Bertha would
die if she sank as she was sinking dur
ing the month OF two that followed the
falling of the great picture. All the
neighborhood had the tale; the Golden
| Dragon had sent it rOund-the bride
| at the castle was wasting away and
dying. The doctors found no disease,
| but she was fading as Il flower fades
whose life is done.
The Schwartzberg case began to fill
the papers of Geneva. Two brothers
had quarreled long ago, and the young
| er of the two had incurred his fathers
anger and gone away an exile from his
home and country. He ran through
his portion in a wild life, and never
| came back like the prodigal. But his
son came back, as stranger and a
| peasant, to live gloomy and discon-
| tented under the shadow of the castle
where his father had lived as boy.
| His fathers brother was there, grown
old now, and the heir was the grand
soma boy with an elder sister Just in
the flower of girlhood. The young
heir had been killed by fall on the
rocks. The old Baron had died and a
man with no name but Schmidt was in
the place of the Barons of Schwartz
berg. The great case dragged on as
nine-days' wonder. There were two
wills; one produced from the safe of an
old notary of Schwartzberg; it was
written after the boys untimely death
and gave the property to the next heir
OF the Schwartzberg barons, the male
descendant of the absent brother; the
other Will was written on the night of
the Baron's death. 1t was disputed be-
cause it had been drawn up when the
testator was weak in mind, on the brink
of death, and it had been done at the
instigation of Schmidt himself. Well,
all the village had been amazed to dis
cover who Fritz Hartmann was; there
was no doubt how the case would 90.
but the poor lady-it is sad for
her." said one of the idlers outside the
inn.
''She is dying, anyhow. so it does not
matter" answered another. 1T does
not make any difference to the dead
whether they owned castle or a
howell"
but is she dying?" with shudder.
Yes" in whisper; 1.-the portrait
fell-it was the omen She sickened at
once IT will no n o,ao+ fuoa,.ol Nv